Gianni Infantino, the Fifa president, fears the revelations in The Daily Telegraph about greed and misconduct in football may be only "the tip of the iceberg" and has called for a new probe into third-party ownership in the wake of the Sam Allardyce storm.
Allardyce lost his job as England manager less than a fortnight ago after being filmed by undercover Telegraph reporters claiming it was "not a problem" to bypass rules on third-party player ownership. He also said he knew of certain agents who were "doing it all the time".
Fifa banned third-party ownership last year but Infantino fears it is still a problem in the game and requires fresh investigation.
"First of all, I was very surprised," Infantino said of the Telegraph investigation that led to Allardyce's departure after just one match as England manager. "Then, I felt very sad because when stories like this come out, it's not good for football.
"When you hear that this is only the tip of the iceberg and there is maybe more to come then this is maybe more worrying. Now, before taking any final judgment, we have to wait for the investigation by the FA and then we will see how to move on.
"It looks as if it [third-party ownership] is still an issue. It's something that we need to look at. We've always been saying that third-party ownership is an issue in the sense that it influences the game and we cannot allow the game to be influenced by economic interests of third parties. We need to look into that and try to get it out."
In another potentially significant development, Infantino has moved to reassure the home nations that their independent status at future tournaments would not be at risk if Great Britain entered a football team at the Olympics.
After a 52-year absence from Olympic football, Great Britain's men made a controversial return at the 2012 Games in London but the move was not repeated this summer in Rio de Janeiro.
The English FA was in favour of a Great Britain team competing in Brazil but Fifa said such a move required the agreement of the ruling bodies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, all of whom were against the idea.
Those three home nations are concerned that such a move could affect their independence within the sport's world governing body and at international tournaments, such as the World Cup finals.
But in a declaration that could revive the prospect of Team GB competing in men's and women's football, Infantino was insistent there would be no such threat to home nation independence on his watch.
"I can tell you what my view is on that and my view is certainly that I don't see this as being an issue - I see things in a much more pragmatic way in general," Infantino said.
"The Olympics are such that there has to be one team from the United Kingdom, so if we can find a football solution which allows a football team from the United Kingdom - and if they qualify to play - then this would certainly not jeopardise in any way whatsoever 130, 140, 150 years of history of the four home nations."
Infantino also defended his desire to expand the World Cup to 48 teams.
"It's not true that the quality goes down [with an expanded World Cup], it's quite the opposite," he said. "Let's not forget at the last World Cup, for example, if we speak about quality, England and Italy have been eliminated by Costa Rica. The quality is there."